Category: 1990s

In this made for television film, Alyssa Milano is a bratty young American whose father sends her to Soviet-controlled Estonia to live with her aunt. Once there, she joins forces with an anti-Soviet resistance group’s efforts to bring Christmas to the town. It’s a trite anti-Communist, pro-Christian propaganda piece where there is no nuance and every single Soviet leader is a stupid, ugly caricature. There is no character development for the main character; she throws tantrums when she is denied any luxury and later throws fits when her aunt questions her feelings for the resistance fighter she just met. The only strong suits in the film are the Estonian location and Natalya Andreychenko’s portrayal as the aunt.  

A disagreement on action and an ill-advised love affair puts gangster Gabriel Byrne at odds with mob boss Albert Finney, leading to a series of events where it is unknown who will survive and who will end on top. For some reason lately, I have some difficulty with gangster films sometimes failing to figure out which side each person is on and falling behind as loyalties are bound to shift. This film was no different and maybe even worse than average on that front. I keep trying but I never feel as strongly about Coen films as their do, yet I keep checking out their titles because I often find strong story telling and intriguing bits in most of their work. This holds true here as well. The entire cast shines with no weak points among them. The costumes and design of the film are well set, perfectly evoking the dark mood of US cities during Prohibition. 

Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey are a bickering, on the verge of divorce, married couple who are expecting a full house for Christmas. Surprisingly, burglar Denis Leary is added to the guest list as he holds them hostage while hiding from the police. Despite its crazy premise, it somewhat perfectly encompasses the chaos that families can bring over the holidays. It’s also is hilarious, has a wonderful cast, and is immensely quotable; no one encapsulating all of that more perfectly than the impressive Glynis Johns as Spacey’s controlling mother. It’s the rare Christmas film that I have no qualms about watching throughout the year. 

Perhaps it’s just because it’s so overdone at this point, but A Christmas Carol is probably my least favorite Christmas tale. Saying that, The Muppets perform one of my favorite classically set versions of the story. Michael Caine is effective in both the villainous and redeemed parts of Scrooge’s character arch. Though I would have liked more well-known characters as the ghosts, the rest of the Muppet cast is well assigned, especially Gonzo and Rizzo who provide good movement and levity in their narrator roles. The songs are memorable while feeling classic and not at all out of place in the setting.    

Michelle Williams is an alien-human hybrid created in a lab from which she escapes after the scientists there attempt to euthanize her. It’s not long before she’s grown up to be Natasha Henstridge and is searching for a suitable man to mate with. The film tries to be a version of Aliens where someone has tried to merge the alien DNA with a human and it comes nowhere near the quality of any of that series of films. The cast, mostly as scientists tasked to hunt down Henstridge, is incredibly stacked but wasted. Forest Whitaker is appealing, but given the thankless role of being an ’empath’. Sir Ben Kingsley, as the leader of the expedition, is probably his most mentally inept character ever. The special effects, even for the time, are awful. Even if you can see the genius of Giger’s design for the alien part of Henstridge’s character, it has been completely wasted and cheapened in this film. There are a lot of naked breasts in this film, for those who are interested in that in their films.